How an ‘average’ Mohan became the Mahatma
By Asha P Nair
24th February 2011 01:19 AM
Bindu with a puppet of Gandhiji with his charkha
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was like any other child - average in studies, with a not-so-good handwriting and no great oratory skills. Still, how did he become the greatest personality of the last century? Mithilesh Dubey and his wife Bindu would give the answer through a unique way - puppetry. The medium they have been using for the last six years to speak to the children of this country about ‘Bapu’.
The couple, along with three young men smitten by Gandhian principles, are in the city, all the way from Jaipur in Rajasthan, to present their puppetry play in schools and colleges here. ‘Mohan se Mahatma’ is how they have titled their puppetry show. The big wooden box they have brought with them has more than 80 puppets - from young ‘Moniya’ (Gandhi’s pet name) to Mohandas in his teens to Mohandas leaving for South Africa as attorney to Gandhiji. Nehru, Jinnah, Kasturba and others could be seen among these puppets.
It was Mahadev Desai, the son of Narayanbhai Desai, who was secretary to Bapu, who suggested that there should be an ongoing programme that caters to students and young people on Gandhian principles. Mithilesh and Bindu, who were into theatre and who also had deep interest in puppetry, took up the task of reaching out to young minds through puppetry.
They started reading all available books on Gandhiji, condensed the autobiography of Gandhiji into a one-hour script, added music, made props and prepared the show in nine months. It was staged at the Natural Clinic, Jaipur on October 2, 2006. Since then, it has covered more than 1,000 shows in more than five states.
‘’When you speak to children on Gandhian philosophy, if it is just words, they might forget as soon as they leave the rooms. But when it is visually presented, it stays in their minds,’’ says Mithilesh, on why he chose puppetry to speak on Bapu’s life.
The team also has Gopal, Durgalal and Lakshman, who work in the farms when they are not doing puppetry. Right now, the team is here from Chhattisgarh, where they ventured out to the Naxalite-prone areas like Dantewada and Bastar. ‘’A Naxalite group stopped us on our way to the show. But when we told them why we were there, they let us go. And we could spot many of them in masks at the various venues, keeping an eye on us,’’ said Bindu.
The play has the live voice of Gandhiji played in between, with music from some of the patriotic classic Hindi films. The team was invited to the city by Gandhi Peace Foundation and Gandhi Bhavan. Foundation member Murukkumpuzha Rajendran, Gandhi Bhavan coordinator M M Ummar and Gandhi Peace Worker V Sukumaran are the people behind bringing the Rajasthani team to the city. The team would be here till March 5 and tour many schools, reciting the story of the transformation of Mohan to Mahatma.
asha.nair@expressbuzz.com
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